WorkSmart Labs Inc.: Chief Design Officer

Location: New York, NY
URL: http://www.worksmartlabs.com

We are an amazing team using technology to save the world. We have built products used by millions around the world to get and stay healthier, and now we need nothing less than a Chief Design Officer to take our design to a completely new level. As a team of amazing engineers, we need someone who will transform everything from our brand identity, to all of our products, to our approach to design, and make our design as outstanding as our engineering. Giant shoes to fill for a unique person.This designer must be able to take their inspired designs, and combine them with extensive in-house usability experiments and data-driven user research to create beautiful, useful and usable products. You should be comfortable (and excited about!) running your designs through our usability lab, working closely with our engineering team, and making adjustments on the fly to make things even better. All the while, you need to be developing and maintaining a core aesthetic and style for the app, keeping it simple and consistent against all odds — and all of this on a tiny mobile screen across several form factors. Did we mention you have to be really good? You would be our first and top in-house designer -- you would influence the direction of the company, to create and shape a design team, and have a huge impact on the design culture of our company. If you look at our current applications and web site, you'll see that we've moved fast as an engineering team without a dedicated trained designer, and we know our design needs a ton of work. We didn't want to hire someone until we grew enough to hire the best. That's where you come in. If you are up for the task, you can become our Design Dictator, Chief Design Officer or our Design God -- however you call it, you would have the power to create amazing products for millions of people.In the beginning, you will also have get your hands dirty. We are flexible as to what tools you use -- you should be equally comfortable with PAD (Pencil-Aided-Design) on a napkin, serious wire-framing, and then polishing off the final pixel-perfect details in Illustrator/Photoshop. Likewise, you should love and excel at all parts of the design process -- product, interaction and visual. What makes us different?1. We make people healthier and happier in the real world. We are not your typical Zynga -- we make a meaningful difference in people's lives. We’re working on the largely unexplored area of fitness and wellness technology where there’s lots of room to make a big impact, and not enough smart people looking at the problem. We are fighting the obesity epidemic -- our users already burn over two pounds of fat every minute, with millions of users served, and the most popular fitness application on Android. We are just getting started. 2. We value great design. It may sound trite, we truly value design. Some say they do, but don't follow up on it. We are not like that. You would work on product from the start, take full responsibility, and be the voice making product decisions. Great design is crucial when trying to get people to do healthy things -- good design taking into account user psychology can make the difference between going for a walk and sitting on the couch.3. We are multi-disciplinary. We see wellness technology as a complete universe of doctors, psychologists, fitness advisors, designers, engineers, and researchers. You will have the chance to interact with and learn from a much more diverse network of people, and become a true Renaissance (wo)man.4. We will teach you how to start and run a company. We discuss everything from how much to pay advisors, what products to build, how to negotiate investments, or even if we should get a new couch. We all have equal say in discussions, and you will learn how to make decisions (data-driven and beyond). If you ever dream of starting your own business, a few years here is the ultimate school for it.6. We are building the company we want to work for. We’ve worked for and admire companies that create great products, and are obsessed with creating a unique work environment and rewarding atmosphere. Join us and make it even better.We have an amazing chef cooking healthy food (we love her!) and a cool office in a Chelsea Gallery building that we are constantly changing. New York is great too!7. We are a start-up with huge progress. We are an incredible team of 12 full-time people, miles ahead of the competition with four years spent working in the space. We've worked hard to finance our company without taking much funding, saving equity for highly-talented early employees (that’s you!). We are in New York, but backed by some of the best angels in Silicon Valley, working with top mobile phone vendors, strategic partners, the works. We can guarantee that you will be generously rewarded with equity and a very competitive salary.How to ApplyFirst and foremost, we want a kick-ass designer. That said, if we were to conjure up a dream candidate, you would have: a degree in HCI, Industrial Design or a related design/interaction field, experience with the technical and UI limitations of mobile and touch interfaces, a portfolio of mobile apps, a portfolio of web apps, an understanding of, or experience with, HTML / CSS or Flash for rapid prototyping. However, we're sure that your past work will speak for itself.To apply, e-mail yourfuturedesigner@worksmartlabs.com, and make sure to include resume, portfolio and anything else that will get our attention. We know you likely already have a great job, so your application will be fully confidential and we can answer any questions you have. We are likely to employ you as a well-paid freelancer and then go from there. Please apply only if you are seriously qualified and up for all the exciting and hard challenges we have described. This role is central to the company, so you must be willing to relocate to New York.

To apply: Send resume, portfolio and anything else that will get our attention to yourfuturedesigner@worksmartlabs.com